The New York Jets gave up one of their home games to participate in the international schedule in 2025. Gang Green is traveling to London to play against the Denver Broncos in Week 6.
I spoke with the NFL’s senior director of broadcasting, Blake Jones, and he revealed the Jets had the ability to block games so the NFL couldn’t take them for that London trip.
“The home team that is hosting the international game does have the option to protect two opponents that will remain in their home stadium as traditional home games. Outside of that, we look at the rest of their remaining home games and from there we select their opponent that will face them in the international game,” Jones told me on “Boy Green Daily.”
I spoke with the #NFL’s Senior Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones & he shared some fascinating insight on #Jets 2025 schedule.
NYJ was allowed to ‘protect’ 2 games from their home schedule that couldn’t be the London game.
Also teams no longer have the choice to take their… pic.twitter.com/72H9vP2P07
— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) May 15, 2025
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I spoke with the Jets’ ticket office on Thursday, May 15. They confirmed to me that the two most popular home games that fans have been interested in are the season opener in Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Week 5 Dallas Cowboys game.
Aaron Rodgers Mystery Changed Jets Schedule
The Jets will open up the season against the Steelers on Sunday, September 7.
“This will be the first time the Jets and the Steelers meet in a season opener and the first Jets’ home opening-date against the Steelers since a 23-17 Thursday night loss to Pittsburgh in the Meadowlands on Sept. 6, 1984,” Jets senior reporter Eric Allen revealed.
Right now, the Steelers’ starting quarterback is Mason Rudolph. The former Oklahoma State product has appeared in 29 games and has made 18 starts. Rudolph has a 9-8-1 record as a starting quarterback.
There are a lot of rumors on the internet that Aaron Rodgers will eventually end up on the Steelers.
“Is it the week of minicamp? Is it the day after minicamp? [Or] is it the week before training camp? Is it the day before training camp begins? Somewhere in that bandwidth, I believe, I don’t know this for a fact, because we’re talking about the enigma of the NFL here, but I anticipate Aaron Rodgers is going to end up committing to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a matter of when, not if,” NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero explained on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
If Rodgers had already been on the Steelers roster, the NFL’s schedule release would have gone differently.
Insider Explains Rodgers’ Ripple Effects on Jets
NFL Network’s Rich Eisen believes the schedule makers decided to put Jets-Steelers in Week 1 because they believe Rodgers will be QB1.
However, my conversation with one of the key decision makers in the NFL schedule-making room painted a different story.
“Yeah, look, I wish we had more information than the rest of you. We are reading the same news updates, breaking news updates, and breaking news that everybody else is. We don’t know right now where Aaron Rodgers is going to be when it comes time to start the season,” Jones explained to me on “Boy Green Daily.”
“We do know that it is Justin Fields facing his old team in the Steelers. It’s just that traditional big matchup of big brands of the Steelers and the Jets, so it’s appealing in that sense. If you add Aaron Rodgers to the mix, I think it adds a lot of other interesting elements to it, but not something that we’ve got inside information on. Had we known, I don’t know, maybe you’d consider it in a prime time game or something like that, but we’ve gotta go with what we know in April and May at the time we finally release.”
I spoke with the #NFL’s Senior Director of Broadcasting Blake Jones & he explained how the mystery of Aaron Rodgers prevented a possible #Jets #Steelers prime time game… 👀
🎥 Boy Green Daily #JetUp #HereWeGo
FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/ceF39BAHTH pic.twitter.com/JqlduSRi84
— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) May 15, 2025
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“I think if the league knew, we probably would’ve scheduled that game for a national television window. So at worst, it’s Justin Fields against his old team. At best, it’s Aaron Rodgers going up against one of his old teams. Look at what we did with Aaron Rodgers’ first game the last two years (both Monday night games). If we knew something, I think you would’ve seen it reflected in the schedule. That being said, still a good game,” the NFL’s VP of broadcast planning and scheduling, Mike North, told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports.
